MANUEL FERNANDEZ, PETITIONER,
v.
SMITH COMMERCIAL GROUP, INC., RESPONDENT
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A party to a contract with an arbitration clause cannot avoid arbitration by suing non-signatories who are agents of the signatory party.
Plaintiff sued a contractor and its president. The trial court referred claims against the contractor to arbitration but denied the president's motion…
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PER CURIAM.
Manuel Fernandez petitions for a writ of certiorari to quash an order of the trial court insofar as it denies Fernandez’ motion to abate claims against him and refer them to arbitration. We grant the petition and quash the order under review.
Respondent Smith Commercial Group, Inc. is plaintiff below in an action containing various counts arising out of a construction contract between Smith, as owner, and Metro Obras, Inc., as contractor. Smith brought suit against Metro Obras and named Fernandez, Metro Obras’ president, an additional defendant.
On defendants’ motion, the trial court referred the claims against Metro Obras to arbitration pursuant to the arbitration clause of the contract. The court denied the motion with respect to the claims against Fernandez individually.
Applying Vic Potamkin Chevrolet, Inc. v. Bloom, 386 So. 2d 286 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980), to the complaint in this case, Fernandez is within the scope of the respondeat superior doctrine and is therefore entitled to invoke the arbitration clause with respect to the claims against him. Id. at 288; accord Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. v. Melamed, 453 So. 2d 858, 860 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984), aff'd, 476 So. 2d 140 (Fla.1985). “ ‘[A] party to a contract calling for arbitration may [not] avoid that undertaking by the simple device of joining as defendants in its lawsuit others with which the party has no such agreement’ Post Tensioned Engineering Corp. v. Fairways Plaza Associates, 429 So. 2d 1212, 1214 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983) (citation omitted). We therefore grant certiorari, see Vic Potamkin Chevrolet, Inc. v. Bloom, 386 So. 2d at 287, quash the order with respect to Fernandez, and direct that the claims against Fernandez proceed to arbitration.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- VIC Potamkin Chevrolet, Inc. v. Bloom, 386 So. 2d 286 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980)
- Merrill Lynch v. Melamed, 453 So. 2d 858 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984)
- Post Tensioned Eng'g Corp. & Commercial Constr. Corp. v. Fairways Plaza Assocs., 429 So. 2d 1212 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983)
- Melamed v. Merrill Lynch, 476 So. 2d 140 (Fla. 1985)